Wednesday, May 6, 2009

The Professor - Ch. 42.3

“He’s in love with a stripper,” Marquess said, singing his rendition of T-Pain’s popular tune, which sounded more like the Chipmunks’ version. He’d been singing it off and on ever since he entered the house.

“Exotic dancer,” Baron amended, looking blissfully happy as he removed a tray of turkey bacon from the oven and sat it on a rack to cool in the spacious kitchen of his home. “And can you please stop singing that song? Better yet, stop singing altogether because you suck at it. You always did know how to mess up a good rap song. Ruined It’s Tricky for me forever,” he said, referring to a famous Run-DMC tune that they once performed in a school talent show.

Marquess abruptly stopped singing. “Hey, I told you to let me be Run on that song. DMC’s part was way too short.”

Baron shook his head. “No, it wasn’t. Those dudes shared every verse equally. Unlike you, Mr. Hog-The-Spotlight,” he replied, freeing his hands of the brown oven towel before moving to the carton of eggs on the countertop nearby. “It was a wonder we didn’t get booed or snatched off the stage that night behind that lousy performance. Had Earl not been sleeping with our principal, we probably would have,” Baron continued, referring to the taboo relationship their older brother had had with one of their young, extremely hot female principals.

“And I still haven’t been thanked properly for that little favor,” Earl inserted from his place at the kitchen island where fresh orange juice had already been squeezed. There was a basket of freshly baked croissants to his left. He helped himself to some of each.

Marquess chuckled, despite the fact that he didn’t want to. “Now back to this wife of yours,” he said, forcing himself to become very serious again as he sat on the wooden stool beside Earl. “You can call her profession what you want, but either way you never should have fallen in love with, much less married a stripper,” he said, revealing what he was most concerned with. Aurelia’s race and cultural differences didn’t bother him at all. After all, Paula got very dark in the summer time and he liked the look of her just fine. “And for all we know she could be after your money,” Marquess surmised.

“First of all, exotic dancing is my wife’s ex-profession,” Baron corrected. “Secondly, if Aurelia wanted me just for my money, she wouldn’t fight me so hard when I try to spoil her. Just yesterday I had to argue her down just to get her to accept the new car I bought her. And she definitely would have taken that money I tried to give her the first night we were together.”

“Never mind the stripper and gold-digger part. How could you marry a black girl?” Earl asked, stating what he was most concerned about.

“By signing on the dotted line and saying I do,” Baron replied, totally unruffled by their questions as he cracked organic egg after egg in a stainless steel bowl. He was just too happy to let anyone rain on his parade right now.

“Do you care nothing about your reputation?” Earl asked, turning red in the face with ire.

“Obviously not as much as you do. Feel free to disown me, if you like,” Baron replied nonchalantly, cracking yet another egg. “I feel like disowning both of your right now myself. None of us were raised to be snobs on any level and yet you two take the cake these days.”

“Have you thought about your professional career?” Marquess inquired, ignoring his younger brother’s comments as he headed for the metal wine rack in the corner. “Count told us that Aurora is a student at the same college you work for. Aren’t you afraid of getting fired? What will your peers think? Your superiors?”

“Her real name is Aurelia,” Baron corrected, starting to wonder what else Count had told them. “And I could care less what my peers think. As for my main supervisor, I’ve already placed a call to him and explained the situation. Dean Paterson supports me one hundred percent, only requiring that we don’t overtly publicize our marriage in Alcove until after Aurelia graduates.”

Earl let out a frustrated breath. “Did you ever stop to think how your decisions will affect others, Professor? As a full-blooded Mexican, I had to work hard enough to be accepted in certain social circles. Even had to alter my complexion. Those same people are not going to like being vicariously associated with someone even darker than I used to be. I have a hard enough time trying to get them to accept Duke during the summer months.” He left out any references to Marquess’ complexion, because their middle brother never got very dark due to his genetic makeup leaning more to their mother’s light complexion.

“Have you stopped to think about how your decisions affect others? Particularly your beautiful blonde wife whom you continually cheat on,” Baron countered, once again showing that he could hold his own with his older brothers. It had come from years of practice. “And why do you still cheat on Meadow? Is it because you secretly crave darker women? Which incidentally are the only mistresses I’ve ever seen you with.”

“Mistress is the only station a dark-skinned woman should have in a man’s life!” Earl raged. Although he’d cheated with a blonde woman before and had even loved her more than his wife, he wasn’t about to mention that to his brothers. They might ask who that mystery blonde woman was. The answer might cause an irreparable rift in the family instead of just a temporary disagreement like this argument was.

“That might be where you want to relegate all the dark women in your life. But the black woman in my life will get the place of prominence that she deserves. Furthermore, I’m starting to think that maybe you’re not so concerned about the family’s reputation at all by coming here today. That maybe you’re simply jealous because I had the guts to marry the woman I really wanted instead of what certain segments of society thought I should have,” Baron said, using a long whisk from the counter to finally scramble the eggs he’d cracked.

“I’m leaving!” Earl stood to his feet. He had to leave before his little brother picked up on even more truths about him.

“About time,” Baron retorted. “And take your alcoholic partner-in-crime, too,” he said, pointing to Marquess, who had forgotten all about the argument and was silently enjoying a full glass of wine from his corner hub.

“Hey, I’m just a social drinker,” Marquess protested, even though it wasn’t even noon yet and no one else in the room was drinking alcohol.

“And Rome was built in a day.” Baron scoffed. “Adias, amigos.” He smirked, waving goodbye to his scowling brothers as they exited the kitchen one by one. “And, Marquess.”

“What?!” Marquess snapped, pausing to look back over his left shoulder.

“Let me know when you’re ready to go into rehab, okay? I’ll gladly be your sponsor. Be there for every AA meeting, too,” Baron replied, speaking with brotherly concern now.

“Bite me!” Marquess retorted and then left the kitchen altogether.

“You’re too bitter and sour for my tastes,” Baron countered, having the last word. When the front door finally closed behind his brothers, he heaved a loud sigh of relief. “I’m glad they’re gone. Now maybe I can finally finish breakfast.”

Ok, I understand that you can't answer the question. And as far a I know we are not realted. I have no relatives who can be this open minded about secular writings.

I just love to read, and I try to take in a full understanding of what I am reading from the front to the back of the book. Instead of waiting until the end to have ah ha moments.

Having said all that, if I happen to park too close to the curb of truth for the rest of the story, I won't post any questions...I'll try to keep it all comments, so as not to spoil it for anyone else.

P.S. Thanks for being so open-minded yourself. I try to make my Secular books easy for all to enjoy. I deliberately try not to rub folks the wrong way or offend them. It saddens me when that sometimes happen anyway.

Having come to the conclusion that I'm never going to please everyone, I simply write the story the way it comes to me and trust God to use it to bless whomsoever.

Paula: Yes, I'm going to go deep (or rather deep enough) in Earl and Marquess' psyche. Since they're not getting their own books and since I want y'all to understand what makes these men tick, I'm going to try to cover those things in this book.